BP15_2009123_OneMinuteMessage2_GoAnimate

BP14_2009123_PeerReview_Alvarez,A.J.

BP13_2009123_PeerReviewChristina

BP12_2009123_Tools#6_Blackflip

Blackflip: http://www.backflip.com
As our world becomes increasingly a digital society, this tool can be used in education to help connect teachers and students.

Blackflip can be used to organize, plan and implement instructions for students and teachers.
There are so many valuable web tools this is one that I’m sure you’ll find enjoy as well.

My favorite thing about this tool is the great social bookmarking flexibility; you can save your favorite sites. Instead of saving websites to your favorites in one computer, you can save your sites in backflip and access them from any computer.
You can also organize your sites by putting them in different folders.

There is a Blackflip button that you can put on your link toolbar and every time you are on a website you like, you just have to click on the backflip button and it will save it to backflip.

This tool can also be used to share important resources with others.

As an educator I share my resources with my students. Students can also share resources they find, click on Blackflip and it automatically saves the site.
This would be great for collecting resources for a research paper and keeping a folder of important sites.

BP12_2009123_Tools#5_Podcastpeople

Podcastpeople: http://podcastpeople.com/
This tool allows you to publish a podcast or a blog using audio and video. You can then display your podcast and blogs. You can also customize your website.

I would have my students create a podcasts portfolio of their work.
1. At the beginning of the school year start by taking pictures or having students take pictures of each art assignment.
2. Write a short description of their artwork (title, media used, elements of art, color harmonies).
3. The students will download their pictures to create a podcast portfolio. They have to add vocal notes about each artwork. They may also express feelings related to their work.
4. At the end of the year art show they will be able to display their work in a digital portfolio. Students will also display their actual work.
Portfolios are required in art; students can actual view their progress.
The use of technology in education is unavoidable we need to prepare ourselves for the transformation.

BP12_2009123_Tools#4_Elluminate

Elluminate is a great web 2.0 tool that has some of the same features as Wimba. As a teacher I would use Elluminate to have my students meet in this virtual classroom to give them instructions or review for a test. The typing box could be used as feedback for test questions, while I use the screen to show the questions.

I could also use Elluminate review and identify artist works. I could have every students input at once. This is an excellent way to keep students engaged in the lesson and on task. I’d have to visually monitor them as well to make sure they aren’t going on other sites at the same time. It doesn’t take long for them to find a way to maneuver out of assigned work.

The average size of my class is 25 students. The semester exams are coming up soon. With all the holidays it’s hard to keep their focus. This would be an interesting way to have a review (if I had enough computers for all the students).
1. First have all students divide into groups of 3- 4
2. Have groups create ten test questions plus the answers to the question from their books or notes, using information covered over the semester.
3. Next all students log into Eluminate for the review.
4. One person from each group post a question
5. All students give a response to the question in the text box
For each question posted I would be able to check for understanding by posting a poll for the whole class to view. This way I keep the students engaged in the review, check to see who is responding and who’s not while I check for understanding.

By using this tool I’m creating a different learning environment were the students are engaged, motivated and having fun learning.

Venting

I don't understand why Google Reader is blocked in my school district! Some things just don't make since.

BP10_2009122_PeerReviewAma

BP11_2009122_OneMinuteMessage1

BP8_2009122_Tool#3_RuneScape

I enjoy using games in my class for teaching critical thinking and problem solving. One that I found interesting is RuneScape it captured my attention with the graphics, music, a wide range of cultural backgrounds and life like characters. The RuneScape player community is much like the real-world community: while most people within it are honest, courteous and respectful of others, there are a small number of individuals whose behavior has the potential to alienate or offend. It is for this reason that RuneScape has an Offence System, which has been designed to help protect players from this disruptive minority.
If, in the course of play, you come into contact with another player whose behavior you consider offensive or aggressive, there are a number of options available to you. The first is to add the player to your Ignore List, or adjust your chat settings, so they cannot continue to bother you. Most minor incidents can be dealt with in this way.
The RuneScape rules are organized into three categories: Honor, Respect and Security.
This game can teach respect and honor, buying and selling math/economic skills. It teaches the user how to navigate through a variety of activities. The lesson I would use it to teach is honor and respect and relate it to real life situations. I’d have students discuss life situations that honor them and those that have caused dishonor or disrespect then play the game afterward I’d have them write a paper comparing and contrasting real life to the situations in the game.

BP7_2009122_Tool#2Go!Animate

Discovering Web 2.0 Tools has been exciting to say the least. There are so many available free to use. The only down side was that several of them weren’t up loadable on my Mac. This one caught my interest: “Go! Animate”.

Go! Animate is a tool where you create your own cast using a character creator or pick a character from the existing themes, which are: Cartoon Classics or Monster Mayhem. You tailor the cast to fit your preferences. You can choose from several categories such as: Cartoons, Monsters, Politics (my favorite), full Energy, and Stick Figure.

You can create a skit by animating the characters to: stand, sit, dance, talk, laugh, or frown, etc. Their mouths move and you can add captions. You can change the features and expressions of the characters you create.

I would use this tool to develop a lesson having students use political figures. Find a current event in the news and recreate the event using Go! Animate. Once they have created the news story, I’d have them create another story using the same situation, and change the out come. This lesson would accommodate right and left-brain learners, involve problem solving and critical thinking skills. It would motivate and engage students, therefore relieving boredom, apathy and stress.

BP_200912_Media_Literacy

The world is changing rapidly. Our students have embraced the change they experiment with cultural products such as video games, music, poems, comics, and dancing and skillfully use their own elegant patois to circumvent the cultural dictates of adult control. More than ever, as mobile technologies and social networks proliferate, the screen is a ripe target for creative expression and resistance (Tyner 2009).
One of the problems students encounter is copyright law concerning recordings. The School of Communications and Theater at Temple University offers some knowledge and short video clips on the subject. The basic rules of copyright for education are: fair uses, repurpose, and added value. These video clips can easily introduce the subject of copyright and be used to enhance a lesson, they are set to rap music, which should motivate the student to listen and ask meaning full questions.
Faber sees the integration of new media literacy into schooling as problematic, but inevitable. In her practice, the grounding of media literacy in an arts education framework is one way to navigate the challenges of public education. She says:
One of the suggestions is to bring media literacy in education through the arts program, since its hard to add new programs to the current system of education because of budget cuts and the strain on education for higher test scores. If you think about it, art has always been at the cusp of change, the border breaker, the paradigm shifter, the healer of the hurts of the past and the envisioning of a radical new future of possibilities. This is the way we need to begin thinking as a society. So art in that sense is not always about content--about story and narrative but about jolting us into ways of seeing and operating differently. It challenges us to imagine other ways of doing things (Tyner 2009).
As an educator with my own school I would make sure students understood the current use of media literacy and bring it in through the art curriculum. I would implement media literacy in grades k-12. Starting at kindergarten to introduce basic principals such as games that incorporate shapes and color that would teach students how to use the mouse, log-in, and find age appropriate web sites. In each level I’d build upon the curriculum, as my school becomes media literate through research I’d develop my program.

Teaching media literacy is, teaching critical thinking and problem solving, by having students analyze, process and develop answers for situations. Listed are some of the many values of teaching media literacy:
• Artistic Perception - Processing, analyzing, and responding to sensory information through the language and skills unique to media arts.
• Creative Expression - Students apply artistic processes and skills using a variety of media to communicate meaning and intent in works of media art.
• Historical and Cultural Context - Understanding the historical contributions and cultural dimensions of media art.
• Aesthetic Valuing - Responding to, analyzing, and critiquing arts experiences.
• Connections, Relationships, Applications - Connecting and applying what is learned in media arts to other art forms and subject areas and to careers (Shaw 2003).

References
Hobbs, R. (2009). The power of fair use for media literacy education. Afterimage, 37(2), 15-18. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Tyner, K. (2009). Media literacy and the tyranny of the narrative. Afterimage, 37(2), 3-10. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
School of Communications and Theater, Temple Univeristy 2009 Media Education Lab Temple University, Retrieved 12/4/09 web site: http://mediaeducationlab.com/news/music-videos-help-educators-and-students-conquer-copyright-confusion
Shaw, D. (2003) Retrieved from the Center for Media Literacy of Malibu, California Web site: http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article631.html

BP9_2009122_Flickr_Lesson_Plans

This lesson plan was found on teachers network web site: http://www.teachersnetwork.org/NTNY/nychelp/technology/flickr.htm
Using flickr.com in the Classroom by Pamela AuCoin
The steps:
1. Get a flickr account and create your own class page. 
 
2. Instruct students to get their own flickr accounts. Get your students' flickr email addresses, and send their invitations to join your site. I keep my page private, to keep outsiders away. Students will then get their own accounts, and accept the invitation. 
 
3. Begin by uploading pictures on your flickr group page. Once you model this skill to the students, they usually catch on very quickly. Show them how to embed comments. Once they click to enlarge an image, they can click on the "add note" tab. Then write your sample comment. Model how to embed comments. 
 
3. Give them specific guidelines for commenting. I tell them to brainstorm ideas in their groups first, so only the best ideas get embedded on the pictures. Once they’ve done this they can type them in. Some sample comments: "Red is the dominant color in the poster, which represents communism," or "Notice how the farm looks like a fairy tale. The bright colors make collectivism look utopian." 
 4. Project sharing: I like to have different groups share their work. Students can view other group work and add comments in the box below. I like them to add their own ideas, if they think there are any key points that have been left out. 
 
5. Connecting to the content: Students should relate their work to the content. They should understand that propaganda was a tool for the Bolsheviks to gain mass support and encourage them to keep fighting against the "evil" bourgeoisie.
I would further develop this lesson by showing students how to choose pictures according to color harmonies, then having them use the color wheel to set up monochromatic, analogous and complementary color harmony sets of pictures. In the past I’ve used magazines to have students cut pictures for this activity.

BP6_2009121_Anti_Teaching

BP6_2009121_Chew_Carolyn_Anti_Teaching

As stated by Michael Wesch students find problems with the significance of the material being taught or tested in our schools. I disagree about what students find significant because sometimes students can’t judge what’s significant for insufficient information. In other words schools are designed to teach skills needed to develop functional citizens in today’s society along with the corporate worlds needs. Most of the skills learned in schools may not reveal value until later in life. However the instructional delivery methods in which our schools operate, needs a serious overhaul. Students are not motivated to learn nor are they retaining what is taught.

I agree that education has become a relatively meaningless game of grades rather than an important and meaningful exploration of the world (Wesch 2008). The fear of students failing the State Standards test has been our measuring device for a school. Test often measure little more than how well they can recite what they have been told (Wesch 2008). Little has been gained so far as teaching students how to learn. Too often students have come in my class and said, “come on Ms. Chew lets hurry up and take this test before I forget everything I studied”. This is cause for alarm! The student is really saying to me that the material studied has no significance to them other than passing the test. The most challenging thing I’ve found about teaching is motivating students to take an interest in learning. Wesch mentioned getting students to ask good questions, but the only way for that to occur is for learning and understanding to take place.

Today’s students have established their own personal learning environments to connect with friends and events of interest to them. Learning is taking place. What it seems that we are trying to do with PLI is figure out how to take this same interest students have in their on environments and make learning simple.

I enjoy using the course management system set up by Full Sail Univeristy, (continually being tweaked). Something like this could work well in our middle and secondary schools, to allow more creativity in students and ease the tension for teachers. Students would easily be able to tract their progress.

Technology alone is not enough, schools need a mixture of instructional design strategies, web 2.0 tools and instructional designed lessons that will reach all learning styles and multiple intelligence. It is necessary that schools incorporate brain based learning and multiple intelligence concepts. These are not all things that will cost money, some simple things can be added such as: playing different kinds of music while students work, experimenting to see which "works best", change the furniture sometimes, allow students to move around to stimulate left and right brain learning, as well as writing and research assignments, add flowers and pictures to the room. Brain-based learning has been called a combination of brain science and common sense. (Hart1983) called the brain "the organ of learning." He advocated learning more about the brain in order to design effective learning environments (Caine1991).


The key components in the 21st century schools should be based on brain based learning and better instructional designs that would involve problem solving and critical thinking. Simulations, games, and real world situations can be used to as well as web 2.0 tools, research, group interactions and field trips to solve the problems. This type of teaching would cause the learner to be the teacher and the teacher would only facilitate the learning process. This way the students ask good questions because learning is actual taking place.

BP1_2009121iGoogleScreenShots